Construction Continues on Notre Dame Condos and Townhomes

by Nick Molnar on June 20, 2011

Despite the slowdown in the building of new homes, construction at the various Notre Dame condos continues. There is new activity at the Legends Row site, where condos will wrap the parking garage at Eddy Street Commons. Irish Crossings is approaching its build-out. Ivy Quad is working on the second of three phases of development. Champions Way is making progress on building 6. Legacy Square is progressing after many delays.

I’ll post about the sales and availability at each of the communities in the coming weeks. Until then, here are some candid photos of the construction taken on June 20, 2011. Click on any photo for a much larger image.

Legends Row

Champions Way

Ivy Quad

Irish Crossings

Legacy Square

– Legends Row: Wonder when actual construction will start…and price points?
– Champions Way: Looks like Building 5 to me, not Building 6.
– Ivy Quad: Good to see some foundations and construction in Phase II. Still a few hanger oner’s in Phase I to unload.
– Irish Crossings: One more foundation and done…
– Legacy Square: Who ya kiddin’, these will all be rentals. You don’t do an air drop into the area and put the entire place under construction at once unless the goal is to have them occupied by student renters by the fall. At least it will be nicer than the “less than desirable” Lafayette Square Townhomes (which were supposed to be non-student rentals too when they were built) or what never got relaunched Stadium Club thingamabob. Oak Hill will continue to less desirable…

…to clarify…Lafayette Square Townhomes were supposed to be individually owned, like Oak Hill, when built but ended up being some sort of a mix when few were purchased, the rest went rental, then the purchased ones were rented out too, then all rental apartment thingy.

The bottom line is, there is a need for higher quality student rentals (yes, that means undergrads) in the area since many ND students would prefer to live off-campus, but very near campus. These new (Legacy Square…yet to be run like apartments…will probably absorb some of those students who would otherwise have no choice but to rent a SFH in these neighborhoods. Resulting in a decline in the neighborhoods as those SFH go into disrepair and prices decline further. After all, who would want to buy one of these SFH’s if good rents can’t be had? Few want to actually own and occupy in that area.

The real question is what happens to the area in 10 years when location based learning goes the way of the dodo bird? If the PTB in the local government are still stuck on what happened in 1963, then there is no way they will be able to positively plan for what is to come in higher ed.

Beware of the Legacy Square property!! Students who had signed leases for 2011-12 school year just got notices on July 1 that the property may not be done by the time leases start and the company so far hasn’t returned deposits or first/last month’s rent to those who were all paid up!!!! To make it worse, the owner is not returning any calls or emails about when OR IF money is being mailed back to students who paid deposits, in the THOUSANDS of DOLLARS range! Beware!!!!